Two Pilots & an LSW: Albama

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Albama

Kaylee was up early this morning to work on a Habitat for Humanity house with her youth group. I dropped her off at 7:40 this morning, while I went to Kokomo to head to Alabama.

She said that she cannot strike a nail in straight, so she took herself off that duty, but she worked with insulation, cutting things, taping things, she worked from 8 am to about 4 pm, with a lunch break. The group of them got a lot done, and she was impressed with the set-up, because the people who are being "given" the house have to work on it too, the whole time it's being built. It's not just a charity, they have to work for it, and build their own home, and she (and I) think that's neat.

Tomorrow she is working with a group for "Urban Outreach", where they work with some of the local "inner city" kids. I'm not sure what all that will entail, but again it's with her youth group, so ti's well organized. This stuff is good for her. She was working with a tool belt in the sun all day building a house. I love it.

Her church is right by the airport. She said they were going by right when I was taking off. The road goes right by the end of the runway. They stopped and watched me take off, and she said "Hey, that's my mom", and they watched me takeoff and disappear into the clouds asap. Kind of neat.

I wish I had photos of her working on a house, but I don't. All I have are photos of aviation stuff. So the rest is about my trip today.

This morning after I dropped her off, I ran to the airport. I wanted to be off the ground by 8, so I was hurrying. When I opened the baggage door on the wing to stow the pitot covers, I closed it with one hand, and when I closed it, the edge of the door sliced across my index finger on my left hand. It was a heavy door, falling fast, with a very sharp edge, and as soon as it bit in, I knew it was bad. I immediately look at my finger, and when I see it, I start running for the sink. I later find a blood trail all the way there. The cut is deep, and pretty bad, and the thought crossed my mind I hoped I could get the bleeding stopped because the thought of a clinic or ER wasn't far behind. It really was a bad cut. I wadded up a paper towel and held a lot of pressure on the wound while I tried to finish my preflight and get everything ready. The blood soaked through the paper towel, so I grabbed another one and kept up the pressure. Eventually it lightened up enough I could slap a bandaid on it, and I took off just a couple minutes late. I didn't touch the bandaid or look at it until I got home at 7 pm, as I didn't want it to break loose again. When I finally did look at it this evening, I took off the saturated bandaid, but I couldn't clean it off. It's waaaay too painful to touch with much of anything, so I put some Neosporin on a bandaid and covered it back up. If it doesn't heal together a little I may actually have to go in. Bad timing though, being Memorial Day weekend. I'll keep an eye on it and hopefully the antibiotic cream will keep it from becoming infected. It sure does hurt though. It stabs me with random pain, and if you touch it wrong, or put pressure on it wrong, lordy! That's probably going to leave a scar.

The flight was tiring. All the way there I was on the edge of my fuel range, so I had to keep tweaking and adjusting to balance out powering back and leaning out and slowing down with actually getting there on time and without having to stop for fuel.

Once I got there, I picked up a rental car and went to drive to where the bid meeting was. Google Maps took me to a dead end. Apple maps took me to a different dead end. I text D who sends me another address, which takes me to the same dead end. I go around the barricades on that road and end up at the right place. THAT was intuitive. :/ At the bid meeting three of us sat in a small room until noon, and then they opened the bids. Our bid was way higher than theirs, so they got it. D found out what they bid, and laughed and said "For that, they can have it!" I then went to a place to get some fresh seafood. A little seafood gumbo, a blackened grilled mahi sandwich, and a view. Mmm.

Traffic was terrible, so it took me awhile to get back home. I stopped at a gas station...and could not find the gas cap button. Anywhere. I spent 5 minutes looking for it, and it wasn't in any of the usual places. Glove compartment, side of the door, by the chair, all over the panel, NOTHING. So I was smart enough to fly myself to Alabama and back, but not smart enough to fill up the car I used.

The flight home was a little more interesting. There were two lines of thunderstorms I had to pick my way through. I didn't really enjoy that as much. Fortunately the onboard radar in mix with the Nexrad helped keep me out of the worst and finding the best path. It's a lot more fun when you're on top of most of it. It's a little less fun when you're picking your way through the middle of it. But I found a good path, and all was well.